Do you have a spacer under the front motor mount? The spacer was not used on Knuck/Flathead frames only on 48 and later. If you do I would take it out and your top motor mount looks like it would line up better. If you don't have it under there start looking for something bent.

Where is your brown wire? The brown is ground [I have grounded it right inside the unit sometimes].Red goes to the hot side of the coil or the side that gets voltage from the ignition switchGreen goes to the other side of the ignition coil.My Opinion:You can hide the wire better by cutting off the hideous plastic connector which it looks like you already did,then using a piece of cloth wire covering from Gardner-Wescot.I also read on Flathead power that the unit does not stand up well to shaky ignition switches that let power come on and off the unit alot.Quote from sheet:We recommend a spark plug gap of .040" for 2-3 ohm coil,a plug gap of.030" when using a3-4 ohm coil. Any coil or combination of coils with a total primary resistance of at least 2-3 ohms can be used with this{sic}distributor.We recommend a 2-3ohm coil for racing and a 3-4 ohm coil for street use.Charging system should put out no more than 16 volts.Want a copy of the sheet cause theres more and I cant see what Im typing?

I have only problems!
It's a repro frame: I need spacer on the front motor mount. (so the front exhaust pipe can't be fixed correctly...
I have a V-TWIN transmission....
I would be interested by a wiring plan.

My V-Twin frame had the same problem. The reason your motor has a 3/8" gap between the front frame mount and the front motor mount is because the rear motor mount on the seat post is off a few degrees from level. At any rate, the first time my frame went back to Conn. for adjustment, that rear mount was tweaked downwards so the motor would sit level. But when the frame came back, I still hadn't fit a Pan motor in the frame. I put a Pan bottom end into the frame, motor fit, but the bolts were real tight on three, and the fourth bolt wouldn't go through the motor and frame mount. Frame mount holes were off a little. The top motor mount slot on the frame wouldn't line up with the top motor mount on the Pan motor. The frame went back to Conn. for some more tweaking.
The frame came back. No cuts or welds were made to the frame, but the motor fit now and the top motor mount on the frame lined up okay.
I put the '56 heads on and the rear head would not sit on the rear cylinder before the head struck the back of the seat post. I used a piece of tapered wood, tried to shoe-horn the motor completely into the frame. No go.
The frame went back to Conn. a third time for some more tweaking. Got the frame back, this time some grind work was evident at the top of the seat post. Don told me they changed out the front gas tank mount to an updated one they were using on their rigid frames now. Looking pretty good.
The only good memories I had with that frame so far, was that everytime I hauled the frame out of my pick-up to bare load it onto the UPS weigh-in table, I'd always collect a small group of people. One group of women said,"Ohhh, I've watched that motorcycle show on TV (My Two Sons)....I didn't know motorcycles even had a frame And then once, some other guys that started in about what they used to own, and how they'd like to own another one. It was that enthusiasm that kept me going.
I got the frame back and everything fit. Had at least 1/8" + between the back of the rear head and the seat post. Looking good. Then I put the transmission in and found that the 5th mount was too high and wouldn't let the transmission seat completely on the base plate along the entire right-side. You've seen what I had to do to remove the top laminate plate. So all this has taken 9 years to fix and write a book at the same time. I'll post the pix I sent to Corbin-Don. Who by the way is a stellar person and is backing me to this day if I ever get in trouble with the rest of my build. He built a complete Replica Pan out of V-Twin parts last year, but he had a complete machine shop there at CG. Maybe you can see your problems in mine Mike. I know that Fuzzy had a Knuckle frame like yours and he moved the top motor mount on the frame back, but his motor still sat at a forward tilt. That isn't right. You might wire Corbin-Gentry or V-Twin and politely ask for assistance. But I think you're in a jam with your frame.
I won't propagate people getting dead-ended and building partial machines. It's not a legacy I want to leave behind.
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1. Motor won't fit into V-Twin frame.
2. rear head won't seat. Hits seat post.
4. Rear head keeps back of motor from seating on rear mount.
5. The above photos were with an old smaller set of '48 heads with plumber/O-ring conversions. This other set of (Accurate Engineering re-manfactured) heads are '56 and slightly wider even.
7. Top motor mount wasn't lined up right because of the seat post early contact.
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8. After Don tweaked things and made it right. Motor now fits into frame.
9. The correct clearance between the rear head and the seat post. Shown here is the older smaller head.
Shown here is the '56 wider head. Both fit. Frame is OEM '58-64. I don't have a pix of the tweaked V-Twin frame with the motor in it yet. But the motor now fits, as do all 5 mounting bolts.

The axle gussets not being parallel to the frame is a problem reported to be only on the Knuckle frames, so far. Fuzzy's V-Twin Knuckle threw primary belts because of it. He went with a chain primary instead.
The approx. 3/8 gap is more gap to take up than the flathead to knuckle spacer that's made. The gap is caused by the rear motor mount. As far as someone being a "nice guy", Don is, and he did what he could while at Corbin. The "problems" in replicating cover alot of area. The reasons are valid. You have to loosen up typical logic (i.e. "I paid hard earned money for a product. I want immediate satisfaction now"), is out the window with Knuckle & Pan replicating. These are big money investments. If you got married, you made concessions to your private life. If you decided to have children, you made further concessions to your life. If you take on a Knuckle or Pan replication project, you just marrried a second wife and had another child. They all must be taken care of. Each in their own way, alloted their own time. You need to, as Sippowicz once put it to Junior on "NYPD Blue", (when talking to junior about having an in-office aquarium)....."You have to learn how to "keep a tank".
Do not replicate. Buy something already running. Do not replicate. If you want to replicate, send your sons and daughters to college so that they can get good paying jobs and have garages with Bestway hydraulic lifts installed. Our boomer generation is done. Pau Hina to quote the Hawai'ian phrase for "poke me with a fork...I'm done."
That said, I've got more replica work to do. Good luck and good night.

Flat mike if you want a wiring diagram to put explosifs to all the repop parts you're trying desperatly to work together...read all Plumbers findings ...and he's only at his ninth year off trying to put a repopbike or 2 together!
Makes restoring original stuff cheap. Oh yeah 3/8" IS the size off the oem spacer to put knuck&UL in pan frame, haven't seen a repop frame with correct mountings for a UL or Knuck, they all had pan lower engine mounts and all had to be checked AND shimmed .
Good luck Stéph

Sorry Mike. There's too many variables involved with the frame, motor and Mallory set up. I asked you to bring your problem over here since there was a resource for electrical problems. Didn't turn out to be of any help. Sometimes these things travel down to a dead-end road. I'm sending Corbin-Gentry an email offering to publish some of their "known" fixes for these frames on top of what we know already. Last chance for them, I probably won't hear back on my offer, but if I do I'll say so.
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I've been down that road before, but have always found a trail the got me to the next step. The Knuckle frame is a challenge but don't do anything to it yet. Don already had the op. to tell me about knuckle rear axle gusset alignment and his reply, was that "he no longer had access to that information". However, I still have his support on any '54-57 frame issues. He built that complete rigid replica Pan last year. We have people like Mbskeam http://www.hydra-glide.net/ that have "made" their replicas work. He helped me on the hydra-glide fork. Started me in to what devleoped into a "would-have-been factory authorized" repair. It's in the next book. Vol. 2 will take you throught the problems of building a rolling stock rigid Pan, plus. We'll use the success of my builds right now, to push for published corrections for the Knuckle frame, or fail.
I'll post the architectural rendering of V-Twins Kansas City hub from the '06 catalog when I get time. Someone else could do this too, it's on page (i can't find it), but it's in there in the front somewhere. Maybe then it will all sink in. Most people won't understand it, because they get hung up on having bought junk! Who wouldn't?.... but the answer would take so long to explain, that someone could write their doctorate thesis on the replica Big Twin aftermarket. Easily. A perpetual college course could be even taught on it. Anyway, don't cut or bend anything. Go learn some more. We're posting the taillight hole positions for '39 OHV through -55 taillamps, and get everyone started towards rolling stock that looks real.

Last edited by Plumber on Fri Mar 17, 2006 2:03 pm, edited 8 times in total.

Why not completly avoid these problems and get a Swedish made frame ?
I mean, if you need to go repop, it is no use buying crap.
I have built 3 bikes using swed-made frames, and there have been no problems as mentioned here.

Wiring the bike is not hard if you purchase a wiring harness.Go to the Mr.Gasket site that the gentleman Curt refered to to read the sheets on the Mallory ignition.If you are running a 65A generator[needed for the Mallory?] then just use a 45 wiring diagram for your year bike and any later FL or Sportster diagram and combine the two for the proper wiring.Then draw the newer generator wiring onto the earlier diagram.Kick Start sells the wiring harness and it comes with the diagram.I have found most cuts to be too long so I get extra flag terminals at an HVAC supply house allowing me to shorten as needed.When you buy the harness it comes with a sheet that tells you where each sleeve and group of color wires go.Follow the diagram and just install each cloth covered section at a time.